Le Figaro Recommends Mount Ararat for French Mountaineers French
newspaper Le Figaro has featured Mount Ararat as a destination for
French mountaineers and nature-lovers in its tourism supplement. The
article stressed the mythological importance of the eastern Turkish
mountain, and recommended it as a destination for mountaineers. The
article also wrote that Noah’s Ark is thought to have come to rest on
Ararat and detailed the expeditions that have sought to find remnants
of the ark, saying, “This tale breathes a romantic and mystic air to
the mountain”. The article also mentioned the troubled past of the
mountain, saying, “For a long time, tourists were frightened to go to
this region because of terrorist activities.” It concludes that, “With
permission from the authorities, there is now no problem for those
that set out to climb Mount Ararat.”
[15:28:00]

30.03.2005
Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Paris

PRESS RELEASE
Haigazian University
Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Rue Mexique – Kantari
P.O. Box 11-1748
Riad El-Solh 1107 2090

Beirut – Lebanon
Professor Shahe Kazarian at Haigazian University:
Humor Styles, Well-Being & Family Health

“Sense of humor a day keeps the shrink away”, was the opening
statement of lecture by Dr. Shahe Kazarian, Chair of the Department of
Social and Behavioral Sciences at the American University of Beirut,
Lebanon, and author of 2 books on diversity psychology and law enforcement.
During his lecture delivered at Haigazian University on March 31,
2005, Prof. Kazarian explained humor in 4 contexts: Sense of Humor, Humor
Styles, Link between Humor Styles and Personal Well-Being, and the link
with Family Health.
According to Kazarian, Humor is multifaceted; the cognitive ability is
marked in terms of remembering jokes, the aesthetic response is defined by
the degree of appreciating humor & jokes in general, the habitual pattern
is when humor becomes a character trait, and finally when humor is used as
a coping strategy.
In the same context, Dr. Kazarian introduced the notion of the
facilitative hypothesis, which considers the sense of humor as a
facilitative agent in daily life, thus enhancing physical, psychological
and social well-being.
On Humor Styles, Kazarian stressed on the way humor is used, meaning
it can be beneficial to a person’s well-being, as well as detrimental, the
other extreme.
In elaborating more on the Beneficial Humor Styles, Kazarian
highlighted the concept of self-enhancing humor, which means cheering
oneself, using humor to cope with stress, and adopting a humorous outlook
to life, and the concept of Affiliative Humor explained by joking around,
saying witty statements, laughing with an amusing others.
On the other hand, Detrimental Humor can be self-defeating and
hostile. This is achieved when humor is used to amuse others at one’s
expense, to make fun of others, and sometimes to hide other inner feelings.
In extreme cases, humor can be offensive and manipulative.
Dr. Kazarian concluded his lecture by relating humor to Family Health.
Research conducted in Canada, the AUB, Haigazian University and elsewhere
has shown that hostile humor is much strongly correlated with family health
than beneficial humor. Criticizing and picking on children could have
negative drawbacks on their developments, and in the long run affect their
personality.
This interactive and cheerful lecture organized by the Cultural Hour
at Haigazian University came after a short break to cheer the audience
after the past tragic events that hit Lebanon.

Court to hear Frontera Resources suit against SOCAR in May

AssA-Irada (Baku)
25/03/2005

The lawsuit filed by US Frontera Resources against the State Oil
Company (SOCAR) will be considered in May. The suit is completely
groundless and this will be proven in court, SOCAR President Natig
Aliyev said.

The International Court of Justice is currently involved in procedural
work to get ready for the litigation, Aliyev said.

Frontera Resources claims it faced certain technical difficulties
several years ago while working in Azerbaijan, thereby demanding that
damages be paid.

The US company held a 30% stake in the development of Azerbaijan’s
Kursanghi and Garabagli offshore oil fields.

However, the company transferred its stake to EBRD after it was unable
to repay the loan it borrowed from the bank. The share was later sold
to a Chinese company.

EDITOR OF “SYUNYATS YERKIR” NEWSPAPER ACCUSES SYUNIK GOVERNOR OF
BURNING HIS CAR

GORIS, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Early in the morning of April 1, at 3:30,
the “Niva” car belonging to Samvel Alexanian, editor-in-chief of the
“Syunyats Yerkir” (“The Country of Syunik”) newspaper, was burnt. The
car was parked in the yard of his house. According to S.Alexanian,
this is a regular manifestation of terrorist actions by the Syunik
Governor. The editor is sure that the incident was caused by his March
12 interview to the “Novoye Vremya” (“New Time”) newspaper, after
which he received “numerous mediated warnings by the Governor.”

TV company staging rally in Armenia to protest at closure

Regnum, Moscow
2 Apr 05

A rally organized by the staff of the A1+ TV company, which was closed
down three years ago, and a number of public organizations started in
the centre of Yerevan at 1200 [0700 gmt].

The protesters are demanding that a new competition be conducted
fairly, our Regnum new agency correspondent reports.

The organizers of the rally stated that various open-ended events and
actions will be staged in Yerevan till 12 April. At present, hundreds
of people are moving towards the capital’s central avenue and heading
for the conservatoire. The protesters are holding posters like
“Freedom”, ”Watch us”, ”Freedom of speech is the achievement of
the people”, etc.

We should remind you that the A1+ TV company has been off the air for
three years. The company was deprived of its frequency as a result of
a competition on 2 April 2002.

The TV company has lost eight competitions over the last three
years. The organizers said that the state TV and radio committee has
not held competitions for more than a year, explaining this by the
fact that there are no vacant frequencies.
From: Baghdasarian

A1 Plus | 13:31:49 | 01-04-2005 | Regions |

JOURNALIST’S CAR BURNT

On April 1 at about 3:30 a.m. the “Niva” brand car of Samvel Alexanyan,
chief editor of the newspaper “Syunats Yerkir” was burnt in the yard of
his house in Goris. The policemen and the firefighters who arrived at
the place of incident were not able to save the car.

The press club “Asparez” of Gyumri considers this the following
expression of the terrorist act of the Syunik region governor towards
the newspaper “Syunats Yerkir”. According to Levon Barsegyan, head of
the club, the reason for what happened was Samvel Alexanyan’s interview
to the newspaper “Novoye Vremya” on March 12, after which the editor
received many messages from the governor of the region by means of other
people and anonymous night calls.

According to Samvel Alexanyan, there is not a second person in Goris who
were able to burn a car. Only the ignorant Sourik Khachatryan is able to
do such a thing. The chief editor of the newspaper refuses to give any
explanation to the Syunik region police announcing more than once that
the RA Constitution does not work in the region and in case of being
objective any policeman can appear in the same situation as he.

It was still last week when S. Alexanyan sent a letter to RA President
Robert Kocharyan about the anti-constitutional situation created in
Syunik. We again address the question raised in the letter to Mr.
Kocharyan: why do you punish the Syunik region? Should a whole region be
sacrificed to satisfying the appetite of a bandit?

OMBUDSMAN’S ANNUAL REPORT IS REPRESENTED TO RA PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Larisa Alaverdian, the RA Ombudswoman,
represented to the President of the Republic the 2004 annual report
about her activity and the situation of human rights and main freedoms
in the country. L.Alaverdian will represent it also to the National
Assembly during the autumn sittings. As Noyan Tapan was informed from
the RA Ombudsman’s Staff Information and Public Relations Department,
the estimations, the conclusions and the suggestions, composed in the
report, are based both on the applications received from the
complainers and on the studies and observations made on own
initiative. According to the information, being the first one, this
report has no approve to reflect all possible displays of human rights
violations, especially that a four-month period is very little for
such a wide inclusion. It was also mentioned that the estimations in
the report, in some cases, cannot coincide with estimations of
separate public groups. “However, these estimations come to prove that
the RA, the inheritor of a country having history of thousands of
years, has irretrievably chosen the way of building a democratic,
social and legal country, among the evidence of which is the creation
of the Ombudsman’s Office.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA CENTRAL BANK OPERATES AT A LOSS IN 2004

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. In 2004, the RA Central Bank (CB)
incurred losses in the amount of 8.9 bln drams (about 19.1 mln USD)
against a profit of 10.3 bln drams in 2003. According to the RA CB
press service, the bank’s assets decreased 1.3% to 378 bln 803 mln
drams last year. In the year under review, the dram assets incresed
about 68.7% to 27.5 bln drams, while the cash amount of the gold and
foreign currency assets decreased 20.3% to about 263.6 mln drams. In
the same period, the CB’s liabilities grew 3.8% to about 377 bln 738
mln drams, 129.5 of this amount being foreign currency. The CB’s
authorized capital made 100 mln drams, its main reserve – about 9.8
bln drams.

COURT EXAMINATION OF CLAIMS CONTESTING RESULTS OF ELECTIONS OF CHAMBER
OF LAWYERS POSTPONED UNTIL APRIL 11

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 31, the court of first
instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan (chaired by
Judge Ruben Nersisian) started examining the claims that were
submitted by a a number of lawyers and contest the results of the
elections of the RA Chamber of lawyers. 5 of 6 the claims filed have
been included in one legal action – 2 claims filed by the lawyers
Ruben Sahakian, Artur Grigorian and Ara Zakarian contest the decisions
taken by chairman of the Chamber, the claims of lawyers Liparit
Simonian, Hayk Alumian and Sos Grigorian – all the decisions made by
the constituent assembly. At the sitting, lawyer Ruben Sahakian, a
candidate for chairman of the Chamber of lawyers, submitted an
application requesting to change the grounds and subject of the
claim. The lawyer asked that all the decisions made the constituent
assembly of the Chamber be declared invalid, incliding the results of
the Chamber Chairman elections, since these decisions were made in
gross violation of the RA Civil Code and the RA Law on Advocacy. The
claimant also asked the court to oblige th RA Union of Lawyers and the
International Union of Lawyers to hold the general meetings on the
issues of approving the merger and transfer acts within 15 days, as
well as to oblige them to approve, prior to holding the constituent
assembly of the RA Chamber of Lawyers, the procedure for holding the
Chamber’s constituent assembly, the draft regulations of the Chamber
and the draft regulations of the lawyer behavior at the joint sitting
of the councils and submit these documents to the Chamber constituent
assembly for approval. The lawyer also asked the court to oblige the
eldest lawyer to hold the Chamber’s constituent assembly within 15
days of the decisions of the Union’s general meetings on the approval
of the transfer and merger acts, as well as to put on the agenda the
issues of approving the procedure for holding the assembly, the
Chamber regulations and the lawyer behavior regulations and the issue
of electi! ons of al l the bodies of the Chamber. The court postponed
the examination until April 11 in order to ensure the presence of 12
lawyers on the side of the defandant. The claimant requests that
licences for parctising advocacy given to them by the RA Chamber of
Lawyers be invalidated, since persons who have no certificates of the
Highest Qualification Commission can neither be considered lawyers nor
vote at the general meeting of the Chamber.

Azeri envoy surprised at Polish ambassador’s Karabakh remarks

Ekspress, Baku
2 Apr 05

Excerpt from Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress
on 2 April headlined “Has the Polish president’s statement been
distorted?” and subheaded “Vilayat Quliyev is surprised at the Polish
ambassador in Yerevan denying the Azerbaijani media”

The Polish ambassador to Armenia, Tomasz Knothe, has denied the
Azerbaijani media reports which quoted Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski as saying at a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart,
Ilham Aliyev, that Nagornyy Karabakh is “an integral part of
Azerbaijan”.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

The Azerbaijani embassy in Warsaw is surprised at Knothe’s
statement. “I cannot understand why Mr Knothe made this statement,”
the Azerbaijani ambassador to Poland, Vilayat Quliyev, has told
Ekspress newspaper.

“Poland and Azerbaijan are very good partners. President Ilham
Aliyev’s visit demonstrated that our countries enjoy mutual
understanding and partnership in all spheres. As far as the Karabakh
issue is concerned, Poland has repeatedly expressed its support for
Azerbaijan’s position.”

Baku presumes that the Armenian media distorted Knothe’s
statement. “In any case, official Warsaw welcomes Baku’s position on
Karabakh,” Quliyev said.

[Passage omitted: reiteration]